Veteran open-wheel driver Paul Tracy has secured a part-time role with the re-formed Dragon Racing outfit, which has been rescued by the team’s co-founder Jay Penske.

Penske, son of IndyCar legend and former F1 constructor Roger, has manage to put together a rescue deal for the team that he co-founded with Gil de Ferran, who was forced to pull the pin on the operation – which had just signed Tony Kanaan at the time – when it fell into a funding crisis.

The deal will see the Canadian Tracy – who was recently confirmed at Dreyer & Reinbold for the Indianapolis 500, a deal that he will still honour – race for Dragon at Long Beach, Texas, Toronto, Edmonton and Sears Point.

“Expectations for Long Beach are that I expect nothing and will give everything,” a thrilled Tracy wrote in a Racer blog entry.

“We’ve had no testing, but it’s still a street course where there can be a lot of carnage, a lot of pit strategy, crazy things happening… and it’s a track that since they changed it to the current configuration, I’ve won three times so it’s not like I don’t know my way around.”

Since the ChampCar-IndyCar merger in 2008, Tracy has been unable to secure a full-time drive, although he has generally managed to contest a handful of races each year. Last year, he represented both Dreyer & Reinbold and KV Racing.

Tracy believes that his deal might be extended to a few more outings with the team, citing the races at Milwaukee, Loudon and Baltimore as possible additions.